People Can Build a Better World

The Socialist Party struggles for the overthrow of capitalism and for a socialist society in which the state has been replaced by the self-organisation and self-administration of the people and their communities and work-places where the wages system has been abolished, where class divisions have been overcome, and where production is carried on cooperatively and democratically for social use, in the tradition of Karl Marx and Frederick Engels. This can only be instituted through the revolutionary political and economic activity of the working class. Few can deny that the world today is in upheaval and chaos throughout the world. The Socialist Party has repeatedly demonstrated that the capitalist system does not and cannot work in the interests of the majority. It is a social system in which society is divided into two classes—a capitalist class and a working class. The capitalist class consists of a tiny minority—the wealthy few who own and control the instruments of production and distribution. The working class consists of the vast majority who own no productive property and must, therefore, seek to work for the class that owns and controls the means of life in order to survive. The relationship between the two classes forms the basis for an economic tyranny under which the workers as a class are robbed of the major portion of the social wealth that they produce.

The defenders of this economic dictatorship never tire of declaring it the “best of all possible systems.” Yet, today, after decades of a host of reform efforts, capitalism continues to present an obscene social picture. Millions who need and want jobs are unemployed. Others are under-employed, working only part-time or temporary jobs though they need and want full-time work. Billions aren’t earning enough to maintain a decent standard of living for themselves and their families despite the fact that they are working. Thanks to capitalism’s exploitation of workers poverty continue to grow. The malignant cancers of nationalism and racism are pervasive. The educational the health care system, despite improvement campaigns for years, still fails to meet the needs of hundreds of millions. Widespread damage and destruction of our environment are worsening. Capitalism is increasingly incompatible with freedom and democracy. People are losing their democratic rights and civil liberties at an alarming and accelerating pace. Fundamental freedoms are being eroded and taken away. Even the foregoing fails to give a full depiction of the plague of social and economic problems modern-day capitalism is inflicting on society. To save capitalism, its ruling class must destroy freedom and democracy. To save freedom and democracy, the capitalist system, the system of economic despotism, must be destroyed. Social democracy alone can fully guarantee lasting freedom. Against this irrational system, the Socialist Party raises its voice in protest and condemnation. We declare our present society is outmoded and must be replaced by a new social system. It must be one in which production is carried on to satisfy human needs and wants. It must be socialism.

Getting something for nothing is what capitalism is all about. That is what capitalists do best. Indeed, that is all they do. Capitalists do not earn, or create, or build anything. They live by profiting from the work done by others. They live off the labor of the working class. The names these two classes bear tell the story. Workers work and capitalists capitalise on the work that workers do. Capitalism exists and can only exist as a system of exploitation. Capitalists are the exploiters and workers are the exploited. When wages are down, profits are up. Increased profits come from the intensified exploitation of labour. Capitalism condemns millions to lives of poverty and despair just to enhance the worthless lives of a few. It is not the welfare claimants or the scroungers on the dole who bleed you. It is the capitalist vampire that is sucking the blood out of you.

Working people are the victims of an array of absurd contradictions. Basic needs like housing remain unmet while builders and construction workers remain idle. Commodities that could satisfy these needs sit in warehouses or storage lots, inaccessible to the working people who need but can’t buy them. Billions of dollars are being spent on weapons and arms while schools, mass transport systems, and other social services are being curtailed or eliminated for “lack of funds.” People are being told that we demand too much …too much improvement in air quality, too much job safety, too much retirement protection, too much health care, too much racial equality, too much housing, too much pay. Governments discarding their past empty promises that capitalism would provide “more,” and, instead, offer us less. Gone are the days of expansive government spending in the areas of social services and job creation. Austerity and cut-backs are, instead, the order of the day. Less pay for workers, fewer job benefits, less spending for job safety, less investment for pollution control, less spending for education, mass transit, and social services means a lot more in profits for the capitalist owners of industry. Even when a capitalist economy is relatively healthy and working “well”, the needs of workers are never met. This is so because the capitalist economy does not operate to meet workers’ needs. It operates for capitalist profit. That profit is generated through the exploitation of working people—that is, by paying workers’ wages that amount to only a fraction of the wealth they collectively produce.

In socialism, the workers’ condition would be the reverse of what it is today. Production would be for social use instead of for private profit. Through delegates democratically elected they would administer the neighbourhoods and industries and make all economic decisions. Resources would be allocated and production would be carried out on the basis of social needs and wants. A socialist economy would thereby free society of the limitations now imposed by capitalism. Such a society will not, of course, come into existence by itself. Nor will it come about if workers seek by turning to the Democrats, who also represent capitalist-class interests. If the working-class majority is to become masters of the nation’s economic forces, rather than its victims, workers must organise to wrest control from the capitalist class and to lay the foundation for a socialist society. Specifically, working people must break with the political parties of the capitalist class and organise politically around their common class interests.